


Healing Demons

by junko



Series: Senbonzakura's Song [33]
Category: Bleach
Genre: M/M, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-30
Updated: 2014-09-30
Packaged: 2018-02-19 09:30:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2383355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/junko/pseuds/junko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Renji hopes to just drop off Daisuke at the Fourth and skedaddle, but Unohana corners him. Things happen.  Some of them are awkward.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Healing Demons

Renji had hoped to drop Daisuke off at the Fourth with a promise to come by and check in on him after his shift was over. Yet, instead, somehow, he’d been bundled off into his own examination room where he’d been instructed to hold an ice pack to the bruise on his head and wait. No amount of ‘I’m fine!’ and ‘It’s just a scratch!’ satisfied anyone either. 

So he sat there with a plastic bag of ice pressed to Ikkaku’s love tap, dripping blood onto the exam table paper. 

Finally the curtain parted. The words ‘Took you long enough!’ dried in Renji’s throat at the sight of the gently smiling Captain Unohana. Why did Renji suddenly feel like getting the wall at his back and begging for mercy? Instead, he asked, while nervously eyeing the only exit behind her, “Am I in trouble or something?”

“No,” she laughed kindly. Her hands tucked up into the sleeves of her captain’s haori, the long coil of hair that was braided around her face hung down in front of them. “What makes you think that, Lieutenant Abarai?”

“I guess I was expecting a nurse,” he said, trying to act cooler than he felt. “Don’t you have more important things to do, ma’am?”

She smiled shyly, “I treat everyone with captain-level reiatsu.” Giving him a broad wink, she added, “And Third Seat Madarame hasn’t arrived yet.”

Renji blinked, surprised she knew Ikkaku’s big secret. But then it occurred to him that if anyone would know, it would be a healer—the strongest healer, at that. 

She continued to smile at him for a few moments. Finally, she said, “We can start when you’re ready.”

Setting the ice pack down on the bed, Renji gripped the table with his hands. “Oh, um, I don’t have to take my clothes off, do I?”

“You can, if you want.” When she came behind him and laid her hands lightly on his shoulders, Renji instantly felt a flood of calm and peace. “In fact,” she continued lightly, “At some point, you probably should. They are rather… ripe.”

“Oh, sorry.” He sniffed under his arm. She was right. He also stank of dust and blood. Even as he could feel the steady warmth of her reiatsu flooding into him, Renji said, “Are you sure I really need—?“ He stopped talking the moment the stabbing pain of his broken ribs sealed and dissipated. Sucking in a deep breath, he let it out with a happy sigh. Renji thought that would be it, and he almost got up off the table, except for her suddenly powerful grip that held him in place.

In a quiet, amused voice, she asked, “Have you been volunteering to be Urahara’s test subject on your off-hours, Lieutenant?”

Renji started to ask why, but then instantly figured out she must have sensed the Quincy condom. “A little.”

“You should know better,” she laughed. “It’s not healthy for you.”

Just like that, a haze was lifted from Renji. Everything in the tiny exam room suddenly seemed sharper, more three-dimensional. Details snapped into focus. Power surged. Somewhere, deep inside, Zabimaru yawned and shook himself out.

He felt great--better than he had in a long while. 

But, this wasn’t good. Craning his neck to try to look her in the eye, Renji said, feeling kind of panicked, “You can’t do that. Put in back! Now I’m going to end up hurting Bya—“ he pulled up short, but it was too late. So, he plowed on, albeit a little less overtly, “That is, it’s supposed to work like the purification rite. You know, to protect nobles from—“ Renji wasn’t exactly sure what to call his low-born cooties, so he waved his arms around and said, “my stuff.”

Unohana lifted her hands from him. 

Coming around to stand in front of Renji, she said firmly, “Lieutenant Abarai, if you wish to protect Captain Kuchiki from your ‘stuff,’ might I suggest a condom?” She gave him no time to react beyond his jaw hitting the floor, before she continued, “Likewise, if your captain needs to protect himself from Zabimaru, the swiftest and surest method he could employ is to practice more with his own zanpakutō.” She turned smartly on her heels, “Good day to you, Lieutenant.”

Renji was so shell-shocked by her words that she had already flung aside the curtain and was halfway down the hall before he could shout, “Wait! But…!”

She turned. The look she shot him could not in a million years be interpreted as a glare, but it stopped Renji in his tracks. There was an intense couple of seconds that had the hairs on the back of Renji’s neck lifting, but then Unohana broke into another kindly smile. She gave him a little bow, still smiling, and said simply, “Love lifts us up, Lieutenant. It never holds us back.”

Then she was gone, leaving Renji gape-mouthed in the middle of the busy infirmary. What was she implying? That the whole rite wasn’t necessary? Or was she trying to say something more about his relationship with Byakuya? 

So lost in thought, Renji nearly jumped when a hand touched his sleeve. Turning, Renji saw Daisuke, looking a whole lot better in a clean yukata. It was a size too big for him but it was a shade of green that nearly matched his eyes. The bruise on his cheek was nearly gone; it had faded to a sickly yellow. The scratches had disappeared. His hair was wet, like he’d had a chance to wash it. 

The look Daisuke gave Renji was uncertain. Dipping his head and dropping his gaze, he said, “Is my lord ready? Will we be returning to the Division?”

“Yeah, I suppose we better,” Renji said, adjusting his uniform. “I have to be on duty in about fifteen minutes, and, well, I’m thinking the best way to start is to make a full report to the captain.” As he turned toward the door, Renji said, “But I’m not your ‘lord,’ okay? If anybody, that’s Byakuya.”

Following behind Renji, Daisuke said, “Oh. I see.”

But, Renji was pretty sure he didn’t. “I know what I said back there, but I wasn’t on a mission to bring you back into… uh, employment, understand? That was a…” Renji dropped his voice, and, after taking Daisuke’s arm and bringing him up to walk beside him, said, “Honestly, that was a cover. You’re a spy, you get that, right?”

“I do,” Daisuke smirked. “But if we’re meant to be playing a part, we should probably keep it up in public, don’t you agree, my lord?”

Oh. Right. Renji sucked at this spy stuff. Plus, he felt really thrown by Unohana’s words. “Yeah, anyway, c’mon.”

#

News traveled fast in the Seireitei. The gate guard at the Division called down to Renji, “How come you’re showing off your bankai to the Eleventh and not to us?”

The woman on the other side, Chikako, added, with a laugh, “Yeah, though it’s certainly big enough. I could just about see it from here! I mean I assume that red-haired snake had to be your Zabimaru.”

“Yeah, that was us,” Renji called back. “Look, I said I’d show him off to everyone once we find a place big enough. The captain wouldn’t be happy if I wrecked the place just to brag, would he?” 

The guards shook their heads thoughtfully at that. 

“Who’s the guest?” Chikako gave Daisuke a long look. 

“This is Daisuke, he works for the captain,” Renji explained. “Whichever one of you guys wants a break, I could use someone to escort him over to the estate.”

Chikako was the fastest. Her hand went up like a shot and she bounced on her toes. “That’d be me! Do I just hand him over to the house steward?”

“That’d work,” Renji smiled as she bounded toward the stairs to meet them on the ground. To Daisuke, he said, “Chikako is one of ours. You can trust her. And, she’s going to introduce to you Eishirō—he’s a bit grouchy when he don’t know you, but he gets better. They’ve kind of got a full house over there with all the family in town, but I’m sure he can put you up somewhere.”

“Considering where I have been sleeping, a warm stone by the kitchen fire would be very welcome,” Daisuke said with a little bow. “Sincerely. And, thank you, Lieutenant.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Renji said, waving off the apology before it got too embarrassing—especially given he’d never meant to rescue Daisuke from the start.

Daisuke settled; Renji turned to the captain’s office. 

#

As Renji walked across the quad toward the captain’s office, he could instantly sense the difference that Unohana’s healing had made. 

Even at this distance, Renji could feel Byakuya’s presence, like the cold fire at the center of a rare gem, glittering. And… smells, suddenly they filled his nostrils: the sweat and dust of the practice field, and the lonely odor of winter with its scents of drying harvests and moldering leaves. In his inner ear, like a drumbeat against Renji’s heart, was a roaring purring presence that felt coiled around each of his muscles, ready to pounce. 

Taking the stairs two at a time, Renji was slipping off his sandals at the door in no time. He’d barely raised his hand to knock, when he heard Byakuya’s startled, “Renji?”

Sliding the door open, Renji stuck his head in, “Yeah, it’s me. Fresh from the healer’s.”

“Ah,” Byakuya said from behind the low desk he knelt at. “Is that why you’re unusually… loud?”

Loud? Oh, Byakuya probably meant that in terms of reiatsu. Now that he had it all back, he should probably pull it in a bit closer. “Yeah, um, also Unohana might have broke the condom as it were.”

“What are you talking about?” Byakuya asked, and then looking up to see Renji still hovering in the doorway, snapped, “And come in and sit down. Are you hungry? Should I call for lunch?”

Renji’s stomach spoke for him with a loud growl. “I’m starving,” he admitted. “There was a big fight, and… uh, I might have brought the wrong guy back.”

Byakuya, who had been reaching for the bell to call a servant, stopped long enough to give Renji a withering glance. With a sigh, he pulled the bell, and said, “Well, then you had better get comfortable. It seems we have a lot to discuss.”

When he sat down, cross-legged, in their usual spot off in the corner of the office, it occurred to Renji it’d been a long time since they’d had this kind of captain/lieutenant one-on-one time. He missed this. Even though it was business, it was… intimate.

“You’re alive,” Byakuya noted. “And healthy. Should I assume this means the plan failed?”

“Okay, harsh. And, no, it totally worked… I mean, sort of,” Renji said with a little grin. “Thing is, I went in to get Seichi, but I came out with Daisuke.”

“The kagema? The spy?”

“The very one, but don’t ask me what he was doing there,” Renji said, raising his hand to cut off the obvious question, “Because thinking too hard about that makes my head hurt, if you know what I mean.”

Byakuya’s lips pursed. “I don’t, but I can imagine.”

Renji grunted. “Yeah, me too, which was part of why I was seeing red.”

Just then there was a soft rap at the door and Aio’s voice came from behind the rice paper, “My lord rang?”

“Please bring lunch,” Byakuya informed her, “The lieutenant is very hungry. Be sure the chef understands that.”

“It will be as my lord says,” she said and after a moment of probably bowing to the closed door, got up to do Byakuya’s bidding.

“I normally have a very light lunch,” Byakuya explained to Renji. It was weird that after all this time, Renji didn’t know that, but the truth was they almost never ate lunch together; it was usually breakfast or dinner.

After a moment, Byakuya asked, “Whom did you fight? Surely, you could have not faced the Kenpachi and come out so… vibrant.”

“Yeah, well, the ‘vibrant’ is another story,” Renji said, scratching the back of his neck. “First things first. So, when I found Daisuke at the Eleventh, Ikkaku stopped me from dragging Daisuke out the door and things devolved from there. I did manage to make the whole speech about wanting Seichi back, so, you know, Kenpachi offered to fight me for him. But I was pretty wrecked by that point, so I declined his kind offer.” Renji chuckled to himself at that. Then, he glanced up at Byakuya to add, “I think I made a good show, though. I mean the fight for Daisuke was a hundred percent real.”

“I suppose, in some horrible way, we are fortunate that Daisuke was there so that your intent was genuine.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Renji sighed. “Do you suppose this is what Captain Kyōraku was trying to tell us the other night when he said he had news? You don’t think he knew Daisuke was being held captive, do you?”

“Are you asking if I believe Shunsui Kyōraku is heartless enough to leave a helpless civilian in the hands of barbarians who would abuse him?”

It was clear to Renji by the way Byakuya spoke that he definitely believed Captain Kyōraku was that type of person. Still, it didn’t seem like the Kyōraku Renji knew. “I don’t know, sir,” Renji said. “I guess I figure Captain Kyōraku maybe heard Daisuke had gone missing. It don’t really seem his style to let a guy get… well, raped. I mean, jumping out of shadows aside, he doesn’t seem that awful.”

“It is difficult to truly understand a soul like his,” Byakuya said. 

There was a flicker, a brief glance up into Renji’s eyes, which made Renji instantly say, “Oh, you mean, someone who has a demon soul?”

“Yes,” Byakuya said simply. 

“The fuck did he ever do to you, anyway?” Renji wanted to know. Because this was certainly not the first time all this demon shit fell on Renji’s head when it had clearly started with Kyōraku.

Byakuya stared down at his hands, which were primly clasped on his knees. “The Thirteenth really has two captains or, at least, it has an auxiliary one. I spent a lot of my youth being tormented by that man. I’m not fond of him.”

“Well, shit, Taicho, that part’s obvious. He didn’t hurt you or nothing, did he?”

“No,” Byakuya said firmly, and raised his gaze to meet Renji’s. “Not physically. I felt he took far too great a pleasure in taunting me, exposing my weaknesses. When I say I do not like him, I really mean I loathe every fiber of his being.”

“Really? Because he seems to like you,” Renji noted. “Like for real, honestly.”

“Yes, that makes it all the worse,” Byakuya grumped, sounding, briefly, like a little boy.

“And at some point you decided it was his demon that drove him to poke at you?” Renji asked.

“He told me so. Repeatedly,” Byakuya said.

Ah, so Renji really did have Kyōraku to blame for some of this demon bigotry of Byakuya’s. “Jeez, don’t you think maybe he was just being facetious? Or, you know, metaphorical?”

The muscles in Byakuya’s jaw flexed, ever so slightly. “His demons are different from yours. They are far darker. Darker than he dare show. Trust me in this, Renji.”

Also, the subtext was very obviously: drop it already. So, Renji shrugged, “Fine. But, try to remember that I’m very much a what-you-see-is-what-you-get kind of demon, okay?”

This brought a thin smile back to Byakuya’s lips. He reached out to touch Renji’s thigh and said, “I shall endeavor to do so.”

Just then the servants arrived loaded down with lunch trays. Byakuya gave Renji’s thigh a little squeeze before letting him go and telling the servants they could enter. As they fussed around setting up trays, Renji thought about how well their conversation had gone, actually. Byakuya took a lot of flack from Renji just now and come out of it smiling. As little as a few months ago, this whole thing would have ended in bitter silence and recriminations.

Which made what Renji was about to bring up that much harder. 

When the last of the servants bowed their way out, Renji cleared his throat before Byakuya could say grace over the meal and, gripping his hakama with his fists, said, “Captain Unohana undid the purification thingie. Look, I’m sorry, but it happened just like that--she just waved it away. I told her to put it back. But, she didn’t. Instead, she said the weirdest thing. She said that if you wanted to protect yourself from Zabimaru, you should practice with Senbonzakura more.” Renji hazarded a glance up, “What the fuck does that mean, Taicho?”

Byakuya was holding the serving chopsticks in his hand, blinking in surprise. “She… undid the purification rite?”

“Yeah, like it was nothing.”

“This is why you’re so much… more there?”

“I would guess,” Renji said. “Look, what do you think she was talking about? I mean, she made it sound like the rite was unnecessary. But, even if that’s true, what the hell does you practicing have to do with anything?”

Byakuya’s lips were thin again, but he lifted his eyebrows in a kind of shrug. “I suppose all we can do is take her at her face value. I will ask Senbonzakura. You should ask Zabimaru. Perhaps they know something we don’t.”

_So…?_ Renji asked.

_It’s obvious, isn’t it?_ The snake-tail hissed.

The baboon king huffed, _Immunity is built with exposure._

_The stronger we are, the less they prey on us_ , the snake-tail hissed. _We don’t need to defend against an equal._

Defend? Renji thought that it was the other way around.

“Okay, you had me until that last bit,” Renji muttered. To Byakuya, he said, “Zabimaru says we should fight each other… I think. Something about immunity with exposure?”

Byakuya smiled. “I see. This is all part of your plan to surpass me, isn’t it?”

“Heh,” Renji grinned. “Could be. I won’t complain if it works out that way.”

“Very well,” Byakuya said, lifting the lid off the basket of the food tray. “You may rearrange our schedules to accommodate a weekly sparring session. Now, I would like to eat.”

Renji and his stomach agreed enthusiastically, “Hai!”

**Author's Note:**

> Josey helped tons. She also suggested a better ending for this, which I ignored in favor of quiet times for our boys. Plot, shmott, I say! :-)


End file.
